On Monday June 29th the Turfcare team vented all greens during the maintenance window. This process punches small 1/8” diameter holes at 6 inch depths into the green. This in turn will provide greens with much needed oxygen from repetitive weeks of rainfall. The greens also soften up briefly from this process and slow down. However the benefits of oxygen will aid in drying these surfaces out sooner than later which will see a positive ball roll return.
With the significant rainfalls to start this week accompanied by a holiday on Wednesday July 1 the course will fall well behind in mowing and grooming practices. The prime play areas will not fall too far behind if we are able to resume mowing on Wednesday. Rough and park areas will be behind and the rough will be long. When we are able to resume with rough mowing we can expect a lot of clippings which will need to be blown and a slower process to complete the mowing program. A lot of drying out will be required by Thursday to resume with large acre rough mowing.
To aid with grooming through this wet stretch we have increased the amount of push mowing on the property. While labour intensive this process is allowing us to knock down the wettest rough areas and prevent too much turf loss. When the grass gets too long and sits in standing water we can see it struggle for health and die back. In general the overall presentation of the property is behind from a detail stand point and there are many areas half groomed as a result of ground conditions.
Cart paths continue to be less than desirable through these heavy rain events. We will smooth these out as soon as we have a stretch of weather that allows. Please continue to slow down on paths when carts are permitted to aid in minimizing turf damage to areas around paths.
The prairie grassland area to the left of 5 green was seeded and has begun to emerge. We would expect this hill to be covered in prairie grasses in the next few weeks if we can get some consistent sunshine.
We hope that everyone has a great Canada Day celebration. Here is too hoping for some consistent dry weather for the game of golf and course care.